Nbc execs are hoping the National Hockey League and its players union reach a new labor pact and avoid a lockout that could leave the network scrambling to find a replacement for one of its sports programming mainstays.

Hockey is a linchpin of NBC Sports programming — the network signed a new $2 billion, 10-year contract with the league last year. A strike or delay in the upcoming NHL season would throw cold water on the momentum it built up from the London Olympics, which nightly averaged 31.3 million viewers for the network.

Labor talks between the NHL and the union representing its players broke down last week.

The worst-case scenario for Comcast-owned NBC, which holds the exclusive national broadcast rights to NHL games, is for the entire upcoming season to be canceled.